Warren Pushes for Expansion of Investigation into Trump’s Dismantling of Education Department
“The dismantling of ED—including ED’s recent move to transfer a range of statutory duties to other agencies—threatens devastating consequences for students, borrowers, and families. I request the ED OIG expand its investigation…”
Washington, D.C. — In a new letter to the Department of Education’s (ED) Inspector General, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pushed for an expanded investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle ED and whether its recent decision to transfer many of ED’s responsibilities to four other agencies violates federal law.
In April 2025, at Senator Warren’s request, the ED Inspector General (IG) opened an investigation into whether the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the department undermined its legal obligations to students and families across the country. Since then, Senator Warren has conducted her own investigation, sending eight oversight letters, in addition to having a face-to-face meeting with Education Secretary Linda McMahon in June—during which the Secretary admitted she needs Congressional approval to dismantle the department.
“[The department’s responses] largely failed to provide complete and transparent answers… [and] raised further questions about the extent to which Secretary McMahon has damaged the Department’s ability to carry out its basic functions,” said Senator Warren.
Senator Warren asked the IG to investigate the following topics given McMahon’s efforts to dismantle ED:
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When the department would restore the Income-Driven Repayment counter, as Secretary McMahon committed to do, which shows student loan borrowers their progress toward debt relief;
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How the department would hold federal loan servicers like MOHELA accountable if they provide insufficient customer service to borrowers, including by penalizing servicers if they fail to meet their contractual obligations;
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The department’s plan to ensure that “Aidan,” the generative AI chatbot that ED created to provide assistance with student aid, does not mislead families and borrowers or compromise their privacy;
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A timeline for clearing the 1.1 million application backlog for Income-Driven Repayment plans, and how ED decided to mass-deny hundreds of thousands of applications in this backlog on a contrived technicality;
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Whether ED has neglected its responsibility to take enforcement actions against predatory or fraudulent schools and ensure low-quality or fraudulent for-profit programs do not receive public funding, especially given the administration’s decision to fire ED workers tasked with ensuring that federal funds are not used fraudulently;
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Whether ED is sufficiently protecting students who have encountered illegal discrimination, especially given the department’s unprecedented rapid dismissal of civil rights complaints and mass firings of Office for Civil Rights staff; and
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How the department determined who to fire when nearly half of ED’s employees were laid off in March;
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Whether ED’s recent agreements to transfer critical responsibilities to four other agencies are illegal.
“The dismantling of ED—including ED’s recent move to transfer a range of statutory duties to other agencies—threatens devastating consequences for students, borrowers, and families,” concluded Senator Warren.
Senator Warren urged the IG to expand its investigation and provide an update on the status of the ongoing investigation to “shed light on the impact of the dismantling of ED on students and families in Massachusetts and beyond.”
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